Everything always looks so polished and put together once success has arrived.

In fact, you may have even caught yourself thinking, “They make it look so easy!” or “Why can’t I do that?”

While these stories inspire, they often leave a trail of misconception behind.

They also cause some people to compare their own journey to the Webmasters they admire, which can be a very destructive mental pattern.

I didn’t create this video to discourage you, but to help you put things into perspective. No matter how great the money may seem, understand everyone has their story behind the success.

Here’s mine, along with some raw facts many people don’t want to acknowledge…

To be honest, sometimes I am too.

It’s hard to believe something that started out as a hobby/side income venture, has turned into a full-time income that allowed me to quit my 9 to 5 job.

While the process is simple, unfortunately most people don’t have or want to take the time to let something like this develop.

It definitely takes time and I would never tell you this happened overnight.

Here are three reasons I believe I found success online…

1) I Choose Topics I Love

This is the most important step and here’s why…

When you enjoy and are engaged in the topics of your site, writing useful content is easier and can be a lot of fun. You are also more motivated to maintain and promote your site.

The passion for your topic, comes through in your writing and this helps build credibility with your audience.

The reason I chose website creation is when I started building my site back in 1998, there were very few comprehensive tutorial sites (especially free ones.) So I decided to build an all-encompassing site for beginners.

Developing content was super easy because I reflected back to the days when I first started. So I wrote about the topics I needed help with when I was getting started.

My past experience with website creation helped give my site life, personality and allowed me to connect with my audience.

2) I Join Affiliate Programs With Residual Payouts

Say you have a fitness site and you join an affiliate program for a gym membership.

When you refer your visitors to sign up for a membership, the company pays you a percentage of your referrals membership fee for as long as they are a member.

If a customer is a member for 10 years, you get paid every month for as long as they are a customer!

Those are the kind of affiliate programs I look for.

The 5 Pillar Program is a great example. I actually bought their product and made a lot of money with it so getting my visitors to buy is pretty easy because they read about my success story.

That’s another important tip…always buy the products you recommend!

They pay you a 25% commission for every customer for life. So let’s say I get 30 people to buy Site Build It! this month. That’s roughly $2250 for that month.

When those customers renew their SBI! subscription a year later, I get that $2,250 again PLUS any new commissions from new customers for that month.

So over time, the residual commission begin to pile up. There are some affiliates in the 5 Pillar Program making 5 figures per month largely because of the residuals.

The Ultimate Domain Reseller Program is another example of residual payments. They actually offer a reseller program.

This is a bit different from an affiliate program because you can actually set your prices and determine your profit margin. For that reason, there is a yearly fee.

With this program you selling domain names and web hosting. You don’t have to have a site about web design to successfully sell their products.

You could write a small “About Me” page on your site and tell a short story of how you created your site, then offer them the links to begin their own.

Every customer that creates a site from your link will earn you a commission every month for as long as they keep their site.

I receive 5 figure checks per month from them because of the residual commissions. I’ve been a reseller since 2002 so the income is really snowballing now.

For a listing of more lifetime commission affiliate programs, see LifetimeCommissions.com

3) I Do Something Everyday

It amazes me the number of people who think they can just build a site and the visitors and money will begin flowing automatically.

Making money online is 90% marketing and 10% website building. Don’t think the work ends just because you’ve launched your site. You’ve only just begun, my friend.

I do something everyday that helps build my traffic long-term. That could be anything from blogging, submitting to StumbleUpon, Digg, writing an article for my site or another ezine, you name it.

All these things help build my traffic slowly, but surely.

It’s imperative you learn about marketing, and you’ll have to discover what tactics work best for you. For example, if you have a site that has mass appeal, a site like www.digg.com may help you draw in traffic.

Or if your niche is very focused and specialized, you may find that joining forums related to your subject matter help attract the kind of traffic you need.

Subscribe to sites like ProBlogger.net (for bloggers), John Chow, ShoeMoney, etc. and learn from others how are making a full-time living and are generous enough to show you what they’ve done to succeed.

I believe it’s important to frequent sites of other successful people. They’re inspiring and provide you with good ideas for your own site.